The Q code directing you to the author’s playlist at the beginning is a fun idea, however that was really all I liked.

The writing itself seemed juvenile and the characters weren’t really fleshed out, even for a short story. The husband laments at one point that he’s disappointed about the “life they could have had” when they were married for 53 years. It wasn’t like his wife was ill that entire time and to completely disregard her feelings over dying to focus on his disappointment in her getting cancer is gross. If it was supposed to make us feel empathetic towards him, it failed. Complaining about things not going your way when the supposed love of your life is dying comes across incredibly selfish and tone deaf, and that alone put me off the story.

There’s too much repetition happening in regard to the characters reactions; three times mouths were cupped. Then we have the Greek mythology metaphors (“A mystical warning from the throat of the barn, like the sound of a minotaur hiding from the light.”) which not only seemed out of place and unnecessary, but amateurish as well.

There’s weird religious undertones throughout yet near the end Rosemary says something about the gods which doesn’t really track with things she’s previously said. Then Rosemary is randomly standing and walking at one point which doesn’t seem to strike her husband as odd. Since ambulatory wheelchair users exist it’s not an issue, except that it’s made to seem like she’s not merely dependent upon the wheelchair but is confined to it due to the cancer. There’s inconsistencies which should have been addressed during editing.

The interspersing of poetry, quotations or illustrations is wonderful when it’s not every few pages. Cabbage contains 37.5 pages of story, and 19 pages of
other people’s words and illustrations, which is entirely too much.

Based on the premise, Cabbage should be creepy if not outright scary, but it’s not. It’s not even laughable in a camp way, it’s just cringeworthy and poorly written.
1 star